Raw materials, semi-processed products, half-finished products and the like, which are still in an unset, wet or reactive condition, are transferred on the conveyance line of a production or manufacture plant for a production or manufacture process of food products, building materials, resin moldings, paper products and so forth. The conveyance passage defining the conveyance line is formed by a continuous conveyor device, such as a roller conveyor or a belt conveyor.
For instance, materials, semi-processed products and so forth for production of food products, building materials and the like are transferred by a group of rollers, in a production or manufacture system. The group of rollers is constituted from a large number of conveyor rollers arranged in parallel, wherein the raw materials, powders, dusts, liquids, viscous matters and so forth cling onto the surfaces of the rollers as dirt or contaminants. Therefore, it is necessary to periodically clean the respective rollers and appropriately remove such dirt or contaminants therefrom. However, such cleaning work depends on manual operation in which an operator manually wipes the surface of each of the rollers, using pieces of waste cloth, scrapers and so forth.
For example, a scraper constituted from a scraping member and a grip attached to the scraping member is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2007-55741 (JP2007-55741). The scraping member is provided with a contact face, which has a generally arched form corresponding to the profile of a roller of a roller conveyor. The scraping member is used as a tool for manually cleaning each of the surfaces of the respective rollers. In use, the contact face is brought into surface-to-surface contact with the surface of each of the rollers in such a manner that the dirt clinging to the surface of the roller is scraped or rubbed to be removed therefrom.
Cleaning devices intended to achieve reduction of labor or automatization of such cleaning work for quickly and reliably finishing the cleaning work are disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Utility-Model Laid-Open Publication No. 60-117323 (JUM60-117323) and Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Nos. 55-70620 (JP55-70620) and 2002-28580 (JP2002-28580).
The cleaning device for a conveyor belt disclosed in JUM60-117323 has rotary brush rollers driven in rotation and arranged in parallel with a roller of a conveyor belt. The dirt or contaminant clinging to the conveyor belt is removed by a large number of brushes on the brush rollers rotating at high speed.
The cleaning device for a roller conveyor disclosed in JP55-70620 has a movable tube located above the roller conveyor, a hollow panel attached to an underside of the tube, and a vacuum pump connected to the tube. The hollow panel has a rotary brush driven in rotation. The panel is in communication with the vacuum pump through the tube, and the brush is in contact with a surface of the roller of the conveyor to remove the dirt on the rollers therefrom. The tube is generally moved with respect to the roller conveyor, and the hollow panel is moved along the tube while the brush is rotated at high speed. The hollow panel sucks the dust and the like from the surface of the rollers and removes it therefrom.
The cleaning device for a roller conveyor disclosed in JP2002-28580 has a movable carrier travelling on a rail which is positioned under the roller conveyor, a lifting device mounted on the carrier, and a cleaner attached to the lifting device. The cleaning device causes the carrier to move to an area immediately below a roller to be cleaned, and then, it causes the cleaner to be lifted by the lifting device, whereby the cleaning cloth of the cleaner is brought into contact with a lower-side face of the roller. The cleaning cloth is in contact with a peripheral surface of the roller (its lower-side face), so that the matter clung to the peripheral surface of the roller is wiped by the cloth.